A Matter of Circumstances
by Messhu
Summary: AU, L/Raito // Raito has always believed that circumstances affected a person's choice. His father's sudden death proved just that. Welcome to a world where he didn't pick up the death note.


**Disclaimer:** Death Note does not belong to me, and no profit is being made out of this.

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**A MATTER OF CIRCUMSTANCES**

Chapter One

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Yagami Raito has always believed that the choices a person makes were affected by the circumstances.

No matter what anybody else said, it has always held true. There was no doubt in his mind that it probably always will.

He just didn't know how close to home it will be at the time.

"Raito! Breakfast is ready!" Raito heard his mother yell from downstairs.

"Okay!" He yelled back, notifying her that he had heard her. Quickly dressing for school, he grabbed his bag and slammed his bedroom door behind him.

"Good morning," he greeted, putting his bag on the floor. Right next to it was that morning's newspaper. To have found it on the floor could only mean one thing.

His father had thrown it on the floor in a fit of anger.

Picking it up, he could see the headlines set as "Mass Murderer On The Loose!" Underneath it, in a slightly smaller font size, was "Has the prison finally had its first slip-up in 50 years?"

"Good morning, Raito. Your father left half an hour ago. I wonder why he was in such a hurry…" He looked up from the newspaper. 'I think I know why,' he thought, sighing inwardly.

His father had always taken his job too seriously. To see that a mass murderer had managed to escape was enough to aggravate him.

Instead of voicing these thoughts, Raito smiled at his mother. "I wonder why. Well, he'll be okay so please don't worry."

'Or so I'm hoping,' he added in his thoughts.

The worried look on his mother's face lightened at his words. "Of course he'll be okay! He's been in this line of work for years!" She said. Raito did not know if she had been trying to convince him or herself.

"Well, I'm off to school," he said, swallowing the last of his toast. Standing up and stuffing the newspaper into his bag, he took a huge gulp of his milk and kissed his mother on the cheek.

"I'm leaving now," he said.

"Have a safe trip," came the reply.

Raito could see that his mother was still worried about his father's hurried leaving.

As he walked to school, he took out the crumbled newspaper and started reading.

"Arisato Tai (39 years old) escaped from prison on 23rd July 2003, at 1:33AM," it read.

"Arisato, convicted for raping and murdering 7 women, was sentenced to death last month. However…"

Raito stopped reading at this point. So that was why his father left in a hurry. He remembered who Arisato was. His father had sent him to prison, after all.

No doubt he was going to re-capture the escaped convict and see that he was locked away in a maximum security prison.

He won't be seeing his father for a while.

He didn't know how right he was.

* * *

Miles away, a man had just picked up a black notebook. "Death Note," it read. Opening it, he found a set of rules. The man grinned, showing yellow teeth. He was never one for rules, but this… This was different. He had death at his fingertips. 'Literally,' he cackled.

Above him, a Shinigami floated. Chewing on an apple, he gave a feral grin. 'Humans are so amusing,' he thought before making his presence known.

* * *

Raito was in class when a call for him rang out throughout the school compound.

"Will Yagami Raito-san of class 3A please go to the teacher's room? There is a call for you."

He raised an eyebrow. Well, this was different from the usual routine. He was getting bored of answering questions.

Excusing himself, he went to pick up the call.

On the other end of the line, was the sobbing of his mother. "Mom?" He furrowed his brows. "What's wrong?"

His mother's reply was another strangled sobbing sound. Then, he could hear the phone being passed. He frowned. His sister was in school, and his father was at his job. So who was with his mother?

There was a cough from the other end. "Hello," he heard someone say. "You are Yagami Raito-kun, right?" At this point, he was starting to have a perpetual frown. "And if I am?" He replied.

The voice coughed again. "I am a fellow police officer and a friend of your father, Yagami Souichirou-san. Unfortunately, your father had a heart attack earlier on, and he died on the spot. I am sorry."

"…" Raito did not know want to say. He had nothing to say. What could he? His father was dead. They weren't close, but he was his father. His head was filled with questions.

Why his father? Why did he have a heart attack? Why didn't they get him to the hospital when he had the heart attack?

As if hearing the last question, the voice replied, "it was a sudden attack, and by the time we could process what was going on, it was already too late."

He felt like yelling at him. His father didn't have a heart problem! Instead, he calmly said, "I see. Thank you for telling me."

But the person on the other end wasn't finished yet. "He was originally the head of investigation for the Arisato Tai case. As he is unable to continue the investigation, we would like you to continue for him. Your father has told us about your intelligence."

Raito had no reply to that. On one hand, he wasn't interested in playing detective. The only times he had done anything related to the line of work were the few times his father had asked for his opinion on various cases, hoping to get him interested in his line of work.

On the other hand, he wanted to find out why his father had a heart attack. The family had no previous records of having any heart problems. His father wasn't a heavy drinker, and he didn't smoke. So why did he have a heart attack?

"We do not expect an answer right now," the voice said. "If you wish to accept our offer, then come to the station tomorrow. We will give you further details there." And the person hung up.

Yagami Raito has always believed that the choices a person makes were affected by the circumstances.

How right he was.

**To Be Continued**


End file.
